


Can we Bridge this Divide Born from Lies?

by Katherine_Apollo_Karma



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: A bit of core ideas and how they mess with the halfas, Christmas Truce 2019, Danny wants to help, Fluff, I am remembering right that Badger Cereal is PLATONIC vlad and danny stuff right??, Vlad isn't as bad as he seemed, badger cereal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22062244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine_Apollo_Karma/pseuds/Katherine_Apollo_Karma
Summary: After finding out the real cause of the divide that was made between Vlad and his parents, Danny figures he needs to try and mend things.More is said then intended.My Truce gift for Alexa Piper. ^^
Comments: 8
Kudos: 77





	Can we Bridge this Divide Born from Lies?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alexa_Piper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexa_Piper/gifts).



It was a chilly Friday evening in Winconsin, the perfect temperature for Danny. If he was out flying for any other reason than what he was he’d likely be in a good mood, however even the whisperings of the approaching winter in the air couldn’t distract him from the worry of what awaited him.

What he was doing was probably a really bad idea. Disastrously bad. Almost stepping into a questionable portal that wasn’t working for reasons unknown bad. 

He was off to visit Vlad. Of his own free will.

Sam and Tucker had tried to convince him to at least wait so they could come as backup in case things went south, but he had a nagging feeling in the back of his head that this was an issue better dealt with sooner than later.

“Hey Fruitloop! You home?” 

He didn’t bother to knock as he just flew right in through the door, carefully going room to room, wary of setting off any alarms as he looked for the other. Calling out as he went.

“Fruuuuuitloop! I’m not here to fight, I gotta talk to you about something!”

_‘Okay maybe calling him a name he hates isn’t a good idea for a peaceful visit…’_

The thought only paused him for a moment before he continued his search calling out for the other.  
  
It took him ten minutes of going from room to room to find the elder halfa. Surprised to see him with several empty bottles of something that looked like it may have been alcohol scattered around his feet and several more still full on the table next to him.

The charged Ectoshot on the other hand, wasn’t so surprising.  
  
“Daniel, what are you doing here.” He looked thoroughly unimpressed. “More importantly, what do I have to do to make you _leave_.” 

“Now there’s no need to start shooting Plasmius, and I could be asking you the same thing. That doesn’t look healthy.” He knew that Vlad had been acting off the last few months but he wasn’t expecting this. “Are you okay?”

The look he got was concerningly lacking the normal fire.

“Daniel just tell me why you’re here. As you can see I’m _clearly_ busy, and I know you don’t really care beyond your ‘hero complex’.” 

Slowly Danny drifted to the ground, he and Vlad may be enemies but the scene in front of him was just screaming to his obsession. It felt so wrong to see his confident and powerful nemesis looking so empty and run down. He had seen that he’d been less and less into their fights, getting the feeling almost like they were just running through a script at this point. Still, he didn’t suspect it was this bad.  
  
“That’s not true.”

The elder scoffed, going to take another swig from the bottle in his hand. “Please, your hatred of me is pretty clear, and even _I_ can admit, warranted-”

“I never hated you!”  
  
The interruption stunned him into silence, a shocked look on his face and bottle still halfway to his mouth. 

“I never hated _you_ , I hated what you did and how you acted, but I could never bring myself to hate _you_.”  
  
This wasn’t why he came here, yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself. What felt like a pull from his very core was pulling this confession out of him. It had been a long time coming and at last it seemed the final straw was found.   
  
“How could I? You made everything look easy while I struggled! The only other one like me was so cool and made fights look like you barely winded when I was putting my all into it.”

He took a deep breath, collecting himself from the sudden outburst flopping down in a seat across from the other. 

“I didn’t come here to fight Vlad, and I didn’t come here because of some ‘hero complex’ _that I do not have_.” A small pause before he added in a voice barely above a whisper. “I’m tired of fighting. Will you just, hear me out? And stop trying to drink yourself into a stupor while I do so?” 

It was a few tense moments of silence before he got his reply.

“Very well little badger. You have my undivided attention, and I was never going to get _that_ drunk. Our ghost side makes it so alcohol has a much harder time affecting us, and I always had a high tolerance even before that. This is nothing.”

“Good, tha- wait hold on what? Really?”

“Yes Daniel. Our advanced healing also fights it off faster than a normal human, but less then a full ghost who would be unable to get drunk off of human drinks at all. Rather useful at times and assures you’ll never have a hangover.”

“Oh that’s going to be so fun to abuse in college if I get that far…”

Vlad cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t you have something you wanted to say?”

“Right! Right, just uhh,” Danny sat up after a moment of hesitation, pulling his backpack he’d been wearing to sit in front of him. “This may poke at some old wounds… but it’s for a good reason, you just have to hold out!”

“That’s not exactly the most promising start, but fine, go ahead. I’ll try to resist shooting you.”

“Gee thanks.” But he didn’t press the matter, just taking a moment to collect his thoughts, “Okay, well, you said that after your accident Mom and Dad never even tried to visit you right?”

He got a dirty glare at that question. “Yes, how could I ever forget Daniel?”

“Sorry, but that didn’t line up with their side of the story!” He opened his bag and pulled out a folder, rifling through the surprising number of pages in it. “See, they were going through some old albums a few days ago and found some old pictures from college. I was being held hostage as they reminisced, but noticed as they were talking Dad got sad mentioning how they tried to visit but the nurse turned them away saying for the first while that they couldn’t visit, and later that you didn’t want visitors.”

“Well your father is an idiot-”

“Shut up, I’m not done.” The teen interrupted. “I questioned that, and Mom confirmed it. So I did some digging with some help and…”

He pulled a memory stick out of the bag and held it out.

“We found the security footage someone attempted to delete, and it confirms it.”

“You… hacked into the hospital records…”

“Well no… _I_ didn’t… but that’s not important.” Danny again interrupted, ignoring the dirty look. “You can get mad at me for the invasion of your privacy when I’m done talking okay? Okay.”  
  
He waited for any other comments, and when none came nodded to himself.  
  
“Okay, but yeah we checked and thought it was weird. If they were telling the truth that they visited, and you were telling the truth that they seemingly abandoned you, why would some random nurse stop clearly concerned friends from seeing their friend? Then I saw her name.”  
  
He pulled a couple pages out of the file and handed them over. Inside on the first sheet was a bunch of information on a woman named Celesta Peneppor, with bright red hair and striking green eyes she almost seemed to be smirking in her photo.

“I swear I’d seen her somewhere before and turns out I was right. She didn’t _bother_ to disguise herself and her name was a freaking anagram!”

The next page was surprisingly professional looking despite been clearly made by the trio of teens, full of information on a ghost by the name of Penelope Spectra.  
  
“She’s a _monster_ who feeds on misery, and mentioned in one fight I had with her that ‘Halfas have such potent feelings’ and I didn’t question it at the time, but this does make that make more sense.”

The teen folded his hands in his lap as he watched Vlad look though the sheets he was given, waiting for a reply.

“Why did you come tell me this Daniel.” 

The room was silent long enough that Vlad was going to talk again, to tell him to just leave, when Danny beat him to it and spoke back up. 

“You looked so happy.” He was quiet, looking down at his folded hands. “In the pictures. I found out your hate was directed at the wrong person, and I can’t blame you for some of how you’ve been before since I know that if I was in your place, losing those I cared about in a painful sudden way, I would be a mess too… or worse…”

Vlad looked for a moment like he was going to interrupt, but Danny just kept on talking. Looking up from his hands and locking eyes with him. The teen’s eyes looking far too mature for someone his age, eyes that knew more than most.

“Betrayal and loss can make even the most morally just person into a monster, but they didn’t betray you. They thought you hated them for what happened and that’s why you apparently had the nurse turn them away, and yet they still kept trying to keep in contact because they _cared_ despite Spectra’s keeping them away. They were, especially Dad, so happy when you came back into contact. But now you know who’s really at fault, and you can direct your anger at the right person who deserves it.”

His voice had turned almost desperately hopeful at the end, eyes so heavy and tired.

“It’s not that simple, little badger." 

"Why not? Can’t you at least _try_? What do you have to lose? Your pride? I beat that into the dust in our fights all the time!” His core ached in a desperation he hadn’t been expecting, the pull from it making him feel like he had to make sure Vlad at least tried. “All you have is things to gain from it. Like your friends back…and…”

He stood up, walking up to Vlad with his head held high and hand held out, as unwavering as the determined look in his eyes.

“A truce? Or hopefully even an alliance?”

It was silent for a few moments as if the elder wasn’t going to reply, so he added softly.

“Please. Just try.”

He put down the drink, and for a moment Danny thought he was going to shoot at him to make him leave, but instead both his hands came out to grasp his outstretched one. 

“You’re not the only one tired of fighting my dear boy.”

_“I’ll try.”_

* * *

When Danny eventually left after a while of them talking about the best way to go about his ‘trying’ to reconnect with his old friends, something the boy seemed to have put considerable thought into and was dead serious about supporting, Vlad slumped. Running his hand through his hair.

That had not been what he was expecting when he felt the other’s signature entering his mansion. He’d thought the younger Halfa had been coming to blame him for something that was going wrong back in Amity Park. Not…whatever that was.

_“I hope you’re not expecting anything immediate. My own long held grudges aside, they don’t think anything was wrong. Your bumbling idio-” A glare from Danny had him stop to correct himself. “Jack, may not notice if I try to act more civil around him, but Maddie certainly would notice and likely get suspicious.”_

_The teen chuckled. “I mean she_ definitely _noticed that you were acting like a creep-tastic fruitloop before, so that would be a big change.”_

_“Precisely, and I’d rather avoid being accused of being overshadowed. Their weapons do hurt after all.”_

_“Yeah you don’t have to remind me…” Of course he didn’t. Danny was shot at far more often than he was, more often then he really wanted to consider. “But there’s a simple solution.”  
_

_“Do tell.”_

_The teen took a seat, not even bothering to go back to sit in the seat, just letting himself float up cross-legged._

_“Have you ever seen any cheesy reality shows?”_

_“Of course not.” Vlad Scoffed, looking downright insulted._

_“Guess even you aren’t_ that _evil… but yeah so Jazz likes to watch it to analyze the characters and even to me it’s really obvious what the problem is.” Something was off, and he had a feeling there was more to it than that. “Just, tell them. Tell them the truth.”_

_Danny very quickly got a look that told him what the other thought of that idea, namely how stupid he thought it was._

_“I thought the goal was to not get shot.”_

_“I don’t mean the whole half-ghost thing! I mean the ‘I thought you abandoned me so was a bit of a dick’. Just apologize for being off around them and admit you want to try again if they do still want to be friends. They’ll freak out thinking you hated them, act confused, and all is good!”_

_He leaned back doing a little flip in the air with a quiet ‘Tada!’._

It was an admittedly decent idea all things considered once it was talked out and it was worded better…mostly considering who it was from, but it would be hard to push aside his pride enough to try.

However after the teen had left, Vlad noticed something odd.

For years he was bothered by the little nagging feeling, a feeling that he instinctively knew once his core had developed was from his obsession begging to be indulged. He had learnt that as a Halfa he wasn’t as strongly driven by his obsession as full ghosts, and even less than Daniel he’d later noticed. He could ignore it, but it was like an itch you can’t scratch that only got worse the longer he ignored it.

It was when it reached a simply maddening level that he decided to try and go after his revenge at last. The beginnings of planning finally, finally, seemed to scratch the itch. He was working towards his obsession and that alone was enough to help lessen the pull, but it was also like a drug. He wanted more, and so worked harder and became more focused. He knew that…

It took him awhile to realize though. 

A while of causing harm and driving away the only other of his kind in an obsession driven case of tunnel vision he only broke free of when it stopped helping his obsession. Stopped feeding that drive and just leaving him tired, and alone.

_Alone._  
  
_**Alone.** _

It hurt, and the need to feed his obsession eventually snapped him out of his craze and made him realize he was alone and that he was in no way making progress to the family he so wanted to love.

He was tired.

Still he continued in his ways, trapped in a routine that no longer helped him and just put him further and further from any chance to be happy. Only getting the smallest spark of joy from his fights with Danny though the bantering, and even that was utterly eviscerated once it was over, only to be replaced with a pain from acting against his obsession. 

_This_ was different though, for the first time in ages it faded almost completely. Just from talking with the other halfa peacefully he felt amazing, even more so than when he first started working to take Maddie as his own. 

Daniel actually _cared_. He didn’t _hate_ him and wanted to be allies.

All he had to do was let go of the hate he’d been harboring for years… hate that was apparently misplaced. It would just take him putting aside his pride for a little to do so, but ghosts were naturally prideful things and that was a ghostly trait he had picked up, be it from his contamination or just his rise to power. It was a strong part of him and he was loathe to go through with the blow this would land on it.

However his core screamed to follow through with this chance for fulfillment at last. 

He had two weeks to decide if he would go through with Danny’s plan.

Two very long weeks to argue with himself he wasn’t looking forward to.

Only time would tell.


End file.
